In celebration of April Fool’s Day I would like to share some top literary hoaxes.
By now you’ve heard of James Frey’s partially-fabricated memoir A Million Little Pieces and Margaret B. Jones’ totally-fabricated memoir Love and Consequences.
But there are more.

Many anonymous teenage diaries like Go Ask Alice were actually written (not just edited) by Beatrice [...]

The cover of my upcoming release Power Play (July 2008) got me thinking about covers. My publisher believes that it has the one element that will make it attractive to readers unlike my…ahem…less successful cover forThe Glass Slipper Project. Can you guess?

That’s correct. Power Play has a man and readers like that, right? [...]

Coming this Sunday, PBS’s Masterpiece Theater has given me another reason why I have stipulated that upon my untimely demise all my diaries and letters be burned. Just read this:
Based on the life and letters of Jane Austen, Miss Austen Regrets tells the story of the novelist’s final years, examining why, despite setting the standard [...]

Rumors of the demise of certain romance subgenres abound in publishing. The historical is dead, the Western is dead, the contemporary is dead—paranormals killed them! I don’t pay much—if any—attention to such rumors because a downward trend is always revitalized by a well told story no matter the genre. Plus many rumors are wrong. The [...]

In a letter, Jane Austen said of her character Emma Woodhouse, “I’m going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like.” Granted she did take a gamble by introducing her heroine this way:
Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of [...]

I know that Halloween won’t arrive for many days, but I have a horror story for you—we have unwelcome houseguests. Woodpeckers are descending on our house like cats to a tuna melt.
Now don’t get me wrong. I love birds. A pet bird pops up in my novel Carefree and plays an important [...]

Run for your lives! The world is coming to an end. Americans don’t read. When they do, it isn’t for pleasure. So all you aspiring novelists out there might as well pack it in. No one needs you or your delightful stories. I’m already looking at the Want Ads since I’ll be redundant soon. Why [...]